I do love calm and productive days!

It has been a lovely day here today, and not just because the beautiful weather is continuing. It was one of those rare days when everything just slotted into place - Jamie had two lovely naps in his cot and was all smiles and gurgles when he was awake despite teething, poor love. So, while he was alseep I got finished some jobs I've been wanting to finish for the last week, and when he was awake we had lots of games of peekaboo and he supervised my housework. I do love this age - almost everything I do, as long as I talk to him while I'm doing it is entertaining and his smiles are so beautiful. Mind you, no matter how entertaining he finds me, Jamie saves his biggest smiles for Ben when he comes home from school! Today it was time for a game of Twister in the garden -although Jamie seems a bit bemused in these photos!

The cutest giveaway!

This really has to be the cutest giveaway ever! Lorelei Eurto is giving away a set of gorgeous ceramic charms made by Kylie Parry, who has even cuter (is that a word? well, it is now!) jewellery and beads in her etsy shop. I think my favourite is this lovely little bird.

The giveaway only runs until tomorrow morning so get over there (here!) and leave a comment!

Tutorial Tuesday - Wrapped Leather Bracelets

I found this tutorial through Deci's blog after she left a comment on the earrings giveaway post last month -she makes the most amazing beaded cuffs and pendants with such tiny beads!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the tutorial for leather wrapped bracelets here too, as I'm seeing so many of these lovely bracelets about at the moment. The tutorial is well written and has some good photos, and there are also a couple of useful videos to help you too, like the one below. I haven't had time to make one myself yet, but from everything I've read you need a lot of thread and it's difficult to attach more thread neatly if you need to half way through the bracelet, so do make sure that you cut enough to start with, and use something like beeswax or thread heaven to help make the thread easier to work with. You can find the tutorial here!

The winners - at last!

Sorry for the silence last week - both I and our internet conection were feeling a bit under the weather. The internet problem seems to have been solved by a very efficient engineer who came out to see what he could do last Thursday, and some early nights seem to have sorted me out. It may sound strange but I sometimes forget that not only have I got a four month baby (I don't ever forget that part!), but I'm still recovering from major surgery. My stay in hospital is starting to feel like a bad dream sometimes, until I catch sight of the scars again - but at least they are fading too. I just have to remember to pace myself. A fair bit of last week was spent at various hospital appointments, but I won't have so many to go to in the future as the main clinic are so pleased with how I'm doing that I just need to go in for a check up every 6 weeks or so, and the speech therapist is so pleased with me that she's signed me off, although she says I can call or email if I need help in the future. Everyone involved in my care at the hospital has been wonderful!

Anyway...the winners of the earrings! Drum roll please.......

The winner of the "leave a comment" pair of earrings is comment 14, left by Pralinka -you have some great photos on your blog! The winner of the newsletter subscription pair of earrings is Louise Fullerton. Congratulations both of you - emails are on their way to you so that I can get your addresses and post your new earrings to you! Thank you for the lovely comments you left - I didn't leave any comments in return as I didn't want to confuse the count, but it was lovely to read about what you all had been making!

I've got a new earring design to show you later in the week, and a pair of them to give away too!

Smoky Quartz goodies! (and giveaway and special offer!)

I love smoky quartz. It's one of those stones that goes beautifully with anything, from rich reds like garnet to cool blues such as turquoise, and looks just as good on it's own with silver. The pieces below are ones that I made before Christmas, but it's taken me until now to put on the website as, well, I have been just a little bit busy! Anyway, here they are. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them - although I can't decide whether the sweetness of the Dainty pendant is my favourite or the elegance of the long earwires on the Smoky Leaf earrings wins! What do you think?

Smoky Leaf pendant and earrings

Dainty Pendant - smoky quartx and garnet

Sorry this is such a short post but the boys and I have been out almost all day, first of all to our local park to feed the ducks, have a picnic and play in one of the three playgrounds (have I mentioned before how lucky we are to have such a great, large and beautiful park within easy walking distance? I really must take some more photos to show you), and then at a brilliant birthday party in the garden complete with magician and bbq - yes, the fantastic weather continues! I'm still getting very tired in the evenings, which is as much due to being a new mum as to recovering from surgery.

I'll finish by reminding you that these earrings:

can be won by one of the lovely people leaving a comment on this post, and that you still have until midnight on Monday 2nd May to use the code "Easter11" to get 10% off jewellery on my website!

Quick! Look!

My shed is tidy! Take a good look, as it won't last for long!

T looked after the boys for most of today (apart from when Jamie needed feeding obviously!) while I started a couple of work projects that I've been planning and wanting to get started for months, but before I could get started I really had to get myself organised, otherwise I'd have too many distractions on the desk in front of me.

I finally tidied up the table I have my photo studio on so that there's space for my lovely new laptop to make life easier for photo editing - just in time for watching some of the Royal Wedding!

And while we're on the subject (because it's impossible to blog today without mentioning it, isn't it?) wasn't she beautiful? And weren't the weather and the crowds and the atmosphere and absolutely everything about the day fantastic?

BTW

Stud earrings fresh from the tumbler!